A Glimmer of Hope

The Mane Six watched the two friends hug each other. It was such an emotional moment. It was nearly as emotional as watching foals opening their presents on Hearth's Warming Day. Pinkie had tears in her eyes. Not a usual sight, but neither was Maud Pie when she smiled, as she had done earlier that day.

"Oh, Starlight!" cried Tempest. "I can't believe that you remember me!"
"Do you think that I would forget the unicorn with the scar and the broken horn who made my day?! You even supported my ideas! Not the best thing to do, considering that I was an evil genius, but I appreciated it," Starlight laughed.
"Did you hear that I was the ex right hand claw of the Storm King?"
"I heard. I didn't want to believe it, having been reformed for a while now, but the old me was saying, "that's your old friend Tempest," and I knew it was. I didn't want to talk because I was scared of how you would react."
"Scared of hugs, huh?"
"Yep. I don't think an Ursa could hug me harder! No offence, of course."
"None taken."
"So is this a party?"
"Yep. I told Pinkie not to go overkill, but she likes doing this."
"Girls, we're still here," said Twilight.

The two unicorns looked at their six friends and giggled, rubbing the backs of their heads with their front hooves due to embarrassment. Twilight watched them and realised that they treated each other as if they had only left each other yesterday.
"So, you two, how did you meet?" questioned Twilight.
"Should we spill?" Tempest asked Starlight.
"If you say so," Starlight answered.
Tempest spoke first. "We had both run away for separate reasons. They were difficult times for both of us. We met at the mountains near where Starlight's old village is. Starlight accidentally charged into me and she almost fell down the mountain..."
"But Tempest saved me..."
"And we stayed in an Ursa-free cave."
"We spoke about why we had run off..."
"And shared our ideas."
"We had different opinions but...
"Neither of us minded, and we were a lot..."
"Closer because of that."
"TWINSIES!!!" yelled Pinkie Pie to everyone's amusement.
"You two really are like twins," Rarity commented.
"If you were twins, you'd obviously be non-identical, but still really cool," said Rainbow Dash. She added, "You can even finish each other's sentences!"
"Starlight and Tempest, the extraordinary twins," said Applejack. She received a round of applause from everypony else. She took off her hat and bowed to them all. From that moment on, Starlight and Tempest were always referred to as "The Twins" when they were together.

***

Later that week, Tempest and Starlight were in Ponyville Library. They were supposed to be helping Twilight do some research on a spell, but had grown bored. They ran off and found themselves in an unfamiliar part of the library. Starlight levitated a book off the shelves and looked at it.
"The Ancestral Records of Canterlot, correct as of the year 2000," Tempest read aloud. They sat together, pretending to be interested in the records stating the name, date of birth and sometimes the date of death of ponies that they had never met. Eventually, they found Tempest by her old name: Fizzlepop Berrytwist. She recognised what was written there: adopted daughter of Sugar Berrytwist and Liquorice Bootlace, the famous sweet shop owners.
"Adopted?" asked Starlight.
"Uh huh. I don't usually tell anypony, but I know that you can keep a secret. I was adopted just before Berrytwist and Bootlace moved out of Canterlot to continue their sweet shop chain in Manehattan. You're from Canterlot, right?"
"Yes. I'm probably in here."
They flipped the pages until they found the name Glimmer. Under Starlight's name, the words "Adopted daughter" were printed.
"I had no idea," said Tempest in disbelief.
I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOU, I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOU, I will always be here for you, I will always be here for you, I will always be here for you...

They both heard the Echo of the Past.
"There's the Echo again. That's you, as a filly," said Tempest.
"No," Starlight told her. "I thought that it was, but every time I hear it, it's less familiar. My voice was a lot higher than that. I don't know who it was." Their eyes locked. A memory stirred. It was so long ago, that they did not recall the event consciously, and only and Echo of the Past could allow them to remember their true heritage.